2023-06-26 01:35:00
Mitsotakis won the parliamentary elections by an absolute majority. Photo: AFP
The prime minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, will be sworn in again on Monday, after his party, the conservative New Democracy, guaranteed an absolute majority in parliament in the general elections this Sunday, the second in five weeks.
Mitsotakis will take the obligatory oath before President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, at 1:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. in Argentina), New Democracy reported tonight in a statement, according to the Sputnik news agency.
The premier’s party accumulated 40.52% of the votes, which reported 158 of the 300 seats Parliament’s totals, with 90% of the scrutiny completed, reported the Ministry of the Interior.
His main rival, the left-wing leader and former Prime Minister (2015-19) Alexis Tsipras, from the Syriza party, garnered only 17.8%, which would be equivalent to 47 seats.
“The Greeks have given us an overwhelming majority to continue on the path of the great changes that our country needs. They have loudly and permanently closed a cycle of toxicity that bound our society,” Mitsotakis said. after knowing the official results, according to the Greek press.
The conservative leader promised that he will be “the prime minister of all the Greeks” because “problems have no color.”
“I never make promises, but I will be faithful to my national duty, with hard work, without arrogance. I know that expectations are high. I want to seek broad consensus. Important reforms will go ahead quickly”he claimed.
While, the historic Panhellenic Socialist Party (Pasok, for its acronym in Greek) obtained 11.9% and secured third place with 32 seats.
further back were the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) with 7.61% and 20 seats in parliament, the far-right Spartans with 4.71% and 13 seats, the ultra-conservative Greek Solution party with 4.48% and 12 seats, the Christian fundamentalist Victoria (Niké), with 3.73% and 10 deputies, and the left formation Rumbo a la Libertad with 3.16% and 8 seats.
The Greeks voted this Sunday to elect a government for the second time in five weeks. Photo: AFP
Everything indicated that the European Front of Royalist Disobedience of the former Finance Minister was left out of Parliament Yanis Varoufakis, who accounted for 2.43%reported the Europa Press news agency.
In the May 21 elections, Mitsotakis also came first, but he was five seats short of an absolute majority in parliament, so he preferred to give up forming a government while waiting to win those or more seats.
The result of these general elections would ensure him 158 seats, that is, he obtains an absolute majority, which allows him to govern alone, as he expected.
For his part, Alexis Haritsis, Tsipras’s Interior Minister, said that “the programmatic effort of Syriza” had not been understood.
“There will be many celebrations of New Democracy, but the social problems will continue to be there and Syriza will do its job and continue working to reconnect with the popular classes”he added.
Mitsotakis, a 55-year-old Harvard graduate who was head of government in 2019 at the end of May, won a sweeping victory five weeks ago with 40.8% of the vote, double that of Syriza.
After voting in a residential neighborhood in the capital, Mitsotakis said Sunday that Greeks were voting “for the second time in a few weeks to obtain a stable and effective government,” the AFP news agency reported.
conservators of #Greece sweep in repeat elections
The Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis opted to repeat elections to achieve an absolute majority and the polls proved him right. The left was below 20% of the first election. /ab pic.twitter.com/1T81FVlBLp
— DW Spanish (@dw_espanol) June 25, 2023
The electoral appointment will decide if this Monday Greece will have an “uncontrolled government” or “a democratic balance”, with “a strong opposition” capable of playing its role, Tsipras said in turn, after voting in Athens.
Greece has a parliamentary form of government, so the party or alliance of parties that achieves a majority in Parliament rules the country.
Once that majority is verified, the deputies elect a prime minister and his ministers, who are all deputies.
The Government will continue in office as long as it maintains that majority in each vote that is carried out.
On this occasion, the winner of the elections will have a bonus of 50 deputies in the chamber (which counts for a total of 300), which could help Mitsotakis decisively.
The main threat to his goal was that voters did not go to the polls before the polls predicted a clear victory for him, and that the conservative vote would be scattered between New Democracy and three other small formations, which compete for the space of the extreme right. .
Today, citizens and democracy have the say. We are voting for the country to have a stable and effective government with a four-year horizon. For a homeland that will offer conditions of prosperity and social equality to all Greeks.
Happy voting to all! pic.twitter.com/hqZowKOdAr
— Kyriakos Mitsotakis (@kmitsotakis) June 25, 2023
“I hope we don’t have to see each other again at the beginning of August,” during the holidays, Mitsotakis declared last week, warning that he would call a new vote if he does not reach an absolute majority.
By giving New Democracy an absolute majority in the July 2019 elections, to the detriment of Syriza, the Greeks wanted to turn the page on years of financial crisis and bailout plans, which destroyed 25% of national GDP and threatened the country. with taking it out of the euro zone.
Mitsotakis, son of a former prime minister and uncle of the current mayor of Athens, did not stop boasting about his economic balance, marked by growth of 8.3% in 2021 and 5.9% in 2022, with falling unemployment.
But Tsipras, once the hope of the left in Europe, warned during the campaign against giving his rival a “blank check” that would allow him to push a “hidden agenda” of anti-social policies.
The Syriza leader was risking his political future in the electoral appointment this Sunday, after acknowledging after May 21 that he thought of resigning.
About 9.8 million Greeks were summoned to vote.
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